Lisa Hitch

Doctoral Research Fellow

Lisa works as a Graduate Fellow and Research Assistant for CIRGH, where she is responsible for international work, including building a Big Cities Network, connecting like-minded institutions, and working on research and publications focused on migrant health in large urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she is establishing a “young researcher” track at the Global Society for Migration, Ethnicity, Race, and Health (GSMERH). In addition to her research work, Lisa works as a Teaching Assistant for multiple graduate-level classes, including PUBH612 – Designing and Evaluating Public Health Intervention, HPAM620 – Public Health Management, and EPID620 Applied Biostatistics II. To advance outreach outside of academia, Lisa is engaged as a Scientist-in-Residence with the Global STEM Alliance situated within the New York Academy of Sciences.

 
Lisa received her Bachelors in Science in Health Science from the Technical University in Munich, Germany. In 2022, she completed her Master’s in Public Health from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH). Throughout her master’s degree she worked as a Research Assistant for both the Center for Systems and Community Design and CIRGH. She published her work in the Journal of Infection & Public Health, and presented some of her research at the New York State Public Health Association Conference and the North American Refugee Health Conference. For her research she was awarded the Dean’s Merit Award for Research from CUNY SPH.

CIRGH Focus Areas

Urban Health & Migration
Access to Care

Areas of interest: Lisa’s interests revolve around migrant and refugee health. Her side interest in quantitative data analysis and biostatistics motivated her to connect non-traditional research methodologies (such as Natural Language Processing) to the field of migrant and refugee health which up until now has been very qualitatively oriented.

Key Organizational Relationships

  • Scientist-in-Residence, Global STEM Alliance of the New York Academy of Sciences
  • Member, Global Society for Migration, Ethnicity, Race, and Health
  • Member, New York State Public Health Association
  • Member, Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers

Training/Degrees

PhD student in Community Health & Health Policy

(in progress)

CUNY SPH in New York, NY

MPH, Health Policy and Management

CUNY SPH in New York, NY

 

BS, Health Science
Technical University in Munich, Germany

Select Publications

Lisa Hitch, Marie A. Sillice, Hanish Kodali, Katarzyna E Wyka, Javier Otero Peña, Terry TK Huang. Factors associated with mask use in New York City neighborhood parks during the COVID-19 pandemic: A field audit study.
Journal of Infection and Public Health. 2022: Volume 15, Issue 4,
Pages 460-465. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2022.02.006.